Ever since Aaron Hernandez was arrested for the murder of his girlfriend's sister's boyfriend, companies have been distancing themselves with the athlete so as not to be drawn in to the negativity that has surrounded the former Patriots player.
As soon as the murder allegations began, the ex-New England Patriots tight end was dismissed by the team. Now, Panini America, the trading card and memorabilia company, has taken the effort to remove Hernandez stickers from 500,000 of their sticker books before they hit the shelves in stores.
"We felt strongly that making these changes was the right thing to do, for Panini and our products but, more importantly, for our fans and collectors," as Panini's Vice President of Marketing Jason Howarth expressed in a statement.
The sticker books contain an initial 10 stickers already, with the original intent to help the collector begin their accumulation. Unfortunately, one of the 10 stickers was for Aaron Hernandez.
The company has decided to print 1 million sticker of Tim Tebow to fill the void. Tim Tebow stickers will continue to be printed instead of Aaron Hernandez stickers. Panini America's policy is following suit after Electronic Arts removed the player from its "Madden NFL 25" and "NCAA Football 14" video games.
The New England Patriots also took to collect more than 2500 Aaron Hernandez jerseys and allowed them to be exchanged for any jersey of the original owner's choice. The team reported a loss of at least $200,000.
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